VALUE NEWS:
Reap Tax Savings when you Replace your IT Assets in 2008
Many businesses can take advantage of the Economic Stimulus Bill of 2008. The same Bill that provided rebate checks to individuals this spring, creates a tax incentive for businesses that purchase new equipment, such as computers, for use in their businesses this year.
INTERNAL REVENUE CODE SECTION 179
The Bill provides a temporary increase in the limits on expensing certain depreciable business assets by nearly doubling the maximum deduction for qualifying asset purchases from $128,000 to $250,000 if made starting in your tax year 2008.
INTERNAL REVENUE CODE SECTION 168(k)
The Bill also includes a special 50 percent bonus depreciation allowance for certain property acquired during calendar year 2008.
HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
You can reduce your company’s tax liability substantially by purchasing qualifying IT assets and putting them into use before January 1, 2009. This tax savings is not scheduled to repeat in 2009.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Consult your tax advisor to be sure you qualify for these extra tax incentives. Details on this Bill are available at http://www.house.gov/jct/x-8-08.pdf. Contact Cascade to find out how we help you generate cash from the resale of your IT assets through our Coast to Coast IT asset retirement solution. Please visit www.cascade-assets.com/solutions/coasttocoast or call (888) 222-8399 to speak to a representative.
Recyclable Commodity Values Falling
The global economic downturn is dragging down the price of most metals found in recycled electronics. This downward price pressure is impacted both by a reduction in the global demand for these commodities and the increased cost of fuel to ship these metals to market. We expect these prices to continue to fall as the world’s economies struggle.
This price erosion follows two years of unprecedented growth in the values of gold, silver, copper, and steel found in many electronics. For example, Cascade saw steel values steadily climb from $0.03 per pound in July, 2005 to over $0.17 per pound in May, 2008. Over the next five months, steel lost 2/3 of its value and now sits at just over $0.06 per pound.
Gold also fell dramatically, from $1,000 per ounce this past April to about $840 per ounce in October. Gold is found in some circuit boards.
Economists point to the insatiable appetite for metals from Chinese markets over the past few years which drove up the prices of these commodities. Their rapid construction and infrastructure development required the acquisition of large amounts of metals, often coming from recycling industries.
The recycling sector benefited greatly during this period. As prices fall, those companies that relied on recycling values for generating profit margins are likely to go out of business. “The cost to responsibly process electronics is not cheap,” says Neil Peters-Michaud, CEO of Cascade Asset Management. “The declining value of recyclable commodities will no longer be able to subsidize unscrupulous businesses.”
